Dan Helfrich

I think what's interesting is, is, uh...

I saw this as well, and, and this was a quote from Dan Helfrich, the COO of US Soccer, and, and I think he's probably looking at kind of what some other teams have done, right? Spain, France, and Morocco I think were the top three in the last Olympics.

They used six or seven players from those teams to be on their World Cup roster this past summer.

And, and if I can find this, uh, Dan said this: "There's a lot of data that suggests that success in Youth World Cups and in Olympic cycles on the men's side create accelerated player development, and create the conditions for success in subsequent World Cups." A- and I, and yeah, I, I am in total agreement with that.

And inside of all of that, we still don't know about a 2028 Copa América.

Could the US or any CONCACAF team be a part of it? Could it be here? And then of course the Olympics, as you mentioned, which has been a stated goal from Dan Helfrich, from JT Batson, who have been the f- sort of mouthpieces and figureheads of US soccer through the World Cup success.

Of course, Dan Helfrich coming on this show, uh, for us to launch it, a, a few weeks ago.

So let's talk about Poch's role.

You mentioned it.

From what I've heard, he probably won't be.

It'll be a bit of a restructure, and I think we're kind of seeing that in the time it takes.

But he was rehired by JT Batson, Cindy Parlow Cone, and Dan Helfrich.

They're hiring two new leaders, a director of men's and boys' soccer and a director of women's and girls' soccer, who will oversee the pathways to the national teams.

But Emma Hayes and Mauricio Pochettino will have full control of the senior teams and they'll report directly to CEO JT Batson, which also means that JT Batson and COO Dan Helfrich, they'll be the ones responsible for hiring and firing senior national team coaches.

What'd you make of this restructuring? Is it a big deal or not?

I think it is.

And that took a lot of fundraising to be able to do.

But now that that's done, Now you do need to move into, okay, what is the plan for these national teams? And who better than the coach of the senior national team that they would expect to play for than to have a heavy hand in setting that up?

That's a good point about Aguchi and Yewu because even though JT Batson and Dan Helfrich will be making these, I guess, ultimately like hiring and firing decisions, they do have trusted football people around them.

Aguchi and Yewu, Cindy Parlow-Cohn, I mean, as the president, I think it's her title now.

But...

Let's go to some of the heavy hitters and let's start on this episode with, as I mentioned, a huge vote that's changing the landscape of youth soccer, as well as the initiatives that U.S. Soccer is putting out that we talk with Dan Helfrich about to launch this show.

And then Henry Bushnell at The Athletic, one of Tom Bogert's partners there, has done coverage of as well as anyone.

So let's go to our interview now with Henry Bushnell.

So I guess we like to talk about the big topics on this show, and I didn't realize this huge of a topic would be coming down the pike.

And you've been covering this since the World Cup.

You chatted with Dan Helfrich, as did we on this show, about what U.S. soccer is trying to do with youth development overall.

And then a piece came out about a big vote that happened this weekend in U.S. youth soccer.

...

the new COO of, of US Soccer, Dan Helfrich, a few weeks ago, and, you know, it's, it's public funding for youth players to come in to play in school.

It's the change of culture.

It's the growth of MLS and NWSL.